Kit Hill Granite
About the same size as golddiggings kit hill quarry is however more enclosed and now late in the day about 1 2 is in shade.
Kit hill granite. The highest point in the tamar valley and with over 400 acres of heathland to explore kit hill country park shows how humans have worked minerals on marginal upland since the stone age. The kit hill quarry incline plane was constructed to link kit hill quarries with the 3ft 6in gauge east cornwall mineral railway which opened in 1872. Located between dartmoor and bodmin moor this wild rugged granite hilltop is famous for its fine views and fascinating history as well as its flora and fauna with 400 acres 152 hectares kit hill is the most dominant. The kit hill quarry incline plane was constructed to link kit hill quarries with the 3ft 6in gauge east cornwall mineral railway which opened in 1872.
How to get there. Kit hill granite is a textbook pale granite of quartz biotite and feldspar. Kit hill quarry callington cornwall august 1990. With 400 acres 152 hectares kit hill is the most dominant landscape feature in east cornwall.
It was a self acting gravity incline with a gradient of 1 in 5 at its head and 1 in 8 at the foot. View from the near the base of the kit hill quarry incline showing the change in gradient from 1 in 8 to 1 in 5. Bre skowl at 334 metres high dominates the area between callington and the river tamar in southeast cornwall england uk the word kit comes from old english for kite a reference to birds of prey and not specifically the red kite. The kit hill granite is a small stock almost a kilometer in diameter.
Located in the tamar valley area of outstanding natural beauty aonb kit hill is a distinctive outcrop of the great granite mass that runs under the whole of. In places some of the granite shows rusty iron s taining a side effect of tourma linisation whereby the hot fluids bringing in the dissolved boron causes leaching. Download the kit hill leaflet. Buzzards and sparrowhawks can still be seen on the hill.
Stress fractures formed during cooling created conduits. Kit hill quarry callington cornwall october 05 1985. Non porphyritic means that the rock does not have a distinct difference in the size of. The incline was 1600 feet long.
The grains are randomly oriented with only small phenocrysts of feldspar which show little alignment. In 2006 kit hill was included with millennia and these combined activities have shaped its landscape creating a fascinating kit hill country park mining and quarrying the granite form of kit hill originated as molten rock which cooled and solidiied deep within the earth s crust. Formerly owned by the duchy of cornwall kit hill was given tocornwall county council on behalf of the people of cornwall in 1985 to celebrate the birth of prince william. This is a popular dog walking place and i can t help but feel that may have something to do with the grey greenness of the water.
It is one of five marilyn hills in cornwall the four others are watch croft.